BACK FROM EXILE, POLAND'S PISKORSKI HAS A PLAN AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 WARSAW 000427 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/20/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PL SUBJECT: BACK FROM EXILE, POLAND'S PISKORSKI HAS A PLAN AND A POCKETBOOK Classified By: Political Counselor Daniel Sainz for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Three years after being dismissed by the center-right Civic Platform's (PO) governing council for responding ambiguously to conflict of interest allegations, now-independent MEP and former mayor of Warsaw Pawel Piskorski has re-surfaced in Poland and taken the reins of the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Democratyczne). The SD is a one-time satellite of the Workers Party that still owns valuable Communist-era properties. Piskorski, intent on settling old scores with PM Tusk and others in PO, aims to build a new centrist, liberal party that will gradually chip away at PO's liberal core. Piskorski cooperates with the small grouping of center-left parties assembled by Dariusz Rosati, but makes a strong case that he has the charisma and ambition that those parties lack. Piskorski is convinced that Tusk's likely election as president in 2010 will be the beginning of the end for PO, and is positioning SD to fill the void. END SUMMARY. PISKORSKI'S GRUDGE AGAINST PM TUSK ¶2. (U) A former Warsaw mayor and current independent MEP who helped Donald Tusk build the center-right Civic Platform (PO) in 2001, Pawel Piskorski was elected in February as chair of the older and larger of Poland's two Democratic Parties. Piskorski's 70-year-old Stronnictwo Democraticzne (SD),a one-time satellite of the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR), cooperates and competes with a smaller democratic party, Partia Demokratyczne (PD),founded in 2005 by former members of the Solidarity-affiliated Freedom Union (Unia Wolnosci, UW). Piskorski has publicly announced plans to transform SD -- which still maintains much of its communist-era infrastructure and owns 16 pieces of property in Poland's larger cities -- into a centrist, liberal party that will compete head-to-head with PO. Piskorski reportedly still holds a grudge against PO's leader, PM Donald Tusk, who forced Piskorski to leave the party in 2006 in the wake of conflict of interest allegations. ¶3. (C) NB: Corruption and conflict of interest allegations have dogged Piskorski since his time as mayor of Warsaw. However, successive investigations, including one launched by his successor as mayor, Lech Kaczynski, have uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing. As mayor, Piskorski was viewed as an "expediter" who circumvented bureaucratic regulations to move construction and infrastructure projects forward. PM TUSK ABANDONING PO'S LIBERAL CORE ¶4. (C) In a recent meeting with the Embassy, Piskorski argued that PO had abandoned its liberal origins tracing back to the UW and liberal elements of Solidarity (AWS). According to Piskorski, Tusk started to move PO to the right in 2005, following his defeat in that year's presidential elections and PO's second-place finish to Law and Justice (PiS) in parliamentary elections. Later, Tusk again shifted PO away from liberal values -- this time, toward a "big-tent" party with the "values-oriented" Marian Krzaklewski and the left-leaning Danuta Huebner at the top of PO's European Parliament electoral lists. Piskorski predicted Tusk's strategy would succeed through 2010 presidential elections, but would ultimately tear PO apart. If Tusk runs for the presidency and wins, he will likely pass the government reins to Deputy PM Grzegorz Schetyna, a capable administrator and hatchet man who lacks the charisma needed to keep the party united. ¶5. (C) Piskorski argued that PO is alienating its core constituency -- pro-business liberals -- by moving too far, too quickly to the right and by failing to deliver on promised economic reforms. Many within PO consider Tusk's recent push for MPs to divest or place stock holdings in a blind trust as an attack on business intended to curry favor with PiS-minded voters. Poland's personality-driven politics and a tendency to look for the "next big thing" in politics, make SD -- and the charismatic Piskorski -- a natural choice for PO's disaffected core. Piskorski is expected to run former Finance Minister (1992) and Foreign Minister (1993-1995) Andrzej Olechowski as SD's candidate for president in 2010; Olechowski came in third in the first round of the 2000 presidential elections. Tusk is the undeclared frontrunner; if he is elected president in 2010 and does not call snap parliamentary elections, PO's "inevitable decline" under Schetyna will create an opening for SD. CENTER-LEFT SPLINTER PARTIES "LACK VISION" WARSAW 00000427 002 OF 002 ¶6. (C) SD plans to target PO liberals, Piskorski said, as part of a long-term effort to build slowly a modern, liberal party. Because SD currently derives rental revenue from some of its real estate holdings -- political parties are prohibited from doing so under Polish law -- the party is not eligible to run in this year's European Parliament elections. However, in the future,he expressed willingness to work with PD and other small center-left parties in the "Alliance for the Future" political grouping that is currently contesting the Euro elections, but will insist that any cooperation take place under SD's banner. ¶7. (C) Piskorski told us he cooperates closely with Alliance leader Dariusz Rosati, but faulted Rosati and PD for lacking the "vision" to reshape Polish politics. "They aspire to cross the five percent threshhold (for parliamentary representation),nothing more." NB: Indeed, in a recent meeting, PD vice chair Radoslaw Popiela expressed cautious optimism that the Alliance would surpass the threshhold, and said the PD hoped for closer post-election cooperation with Piskorski.) Piskorski's SD has one overwhelming advantage over the increasing number of small political groupings that aspire to break PO and PiS's hold on Polish politics -- real estate properties, some of which will be sold to finance the party's 2010 presidential and 2011 parliamentary campaigns. COMMENT ¶8. (C) Piskorski is charismatic, engaging, and driven. He has repeatedly proved himself a masterful administrator and strategist. As mayor of Warsaw in 1999-2002, Piskorski got things done at City Hall, though his shortcuts prompted allegations of conflict of interest and nepotism. Whether or not SD succeeds in capturing the imagination of Polish liberals, Piskorski clearly intends to become a force again in Polish politics, and is aiming squarely at Tusk. ASHE